Remedy Entertainment is a maestro of the third-person shooter genre. Nothing hits quite like the thrill of Max Payne's bullet-time or the superpowered chaos of Control. Following the critical acclaim of Alan Wake, creative director Sam Lake takes us from Bright Falls to Riverport, where the 'end of time' is unfolding. Quantum Break is a time-travelling odyssey you may have skipped over in 2016, but the good news is that it's super cheap to play on your Steam Deck.
You may have Quantum Break on the Steam Marketplace, with a respectable 75% discount. But as Dennis would say in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: "I can go lower." Right now, Loaded is selling Remedy's action game with 89% slash on the price, bringing it down to just $4.59/£3.39. That's a huge saving on its typical retail price of $40.79/£29.99. If you're wondering about its verified status, Quantum Break is listed as 'playable' on Steam Deck.
Of course, you'll need to knock down its graphics settings a couple of notches. Yet, because Remedy's Northlight engine still looks fantastic in its debut form, Quantum Break still looks good on lower settings. With in-game upscaling activated on low, you can easily break the 80fps mark. On higher settings, you're looking at a drop to between 30 and 50 fps. If you've ever wondered what Max Payne's gameplay would feel like with time-travel-fueled powers, that's just the foundation for Quantum Break.
Following an experiment gone wrong, Jack Joyce (Shawn Ashmore) and Paul Serene (Aidan Gillen) gain several abilities that can disrupt the very fabric of time around them. If you're a fiend for movies like Primer, Looper, or the highly underrated Tenet, then you'll get a huge kick out of the plot. Where Quantum Break truly excels, though, is the game's combat. At the surface level, the mere act of shooting foes between cover is sturdy, but it's the addition of numerous abilities that truly make it sing.
Jack's 'Time Rush' ability is like speeding through environments as The Flash, capping it off with a stylish melee beatdown. Other powers create shields woven from time itself, while more powerful attacks create huge ripple effects that send enemies flying. Accompanied by a minimal UI, it's easy to get immersed in every firefight.
It's easy to see where a lot of the ideas present in Alan Wake 2 come from, at least in presentation. Chapters in Quantum Break end with curated needle drops and live-action footage from the game's TV show. Although the quality of the live-action segments isn't quite as strong, it's fascinating to see how Remedy would evolve this style. There's even a couple of winks to Alan Wake, too. However, because Microsoft still owns Quantum Break, we can't count it as part of the Remedy Connected Universe. Hopefully, that will change one day.
It isn't just Valve's portable gaming console that you can play on, either. You can get it running on your ROG Xbox Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, or MSI Claw 8 AI+. Regardless of your handheld platform, the important thing is that Quantum Break is more accessible than ever.